What If
by Sunset Miko
Summary: Kagome thinks about her life. Written for InuyashaQuotes week 2 prompt: Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. -Helen Keller


I do not own Inuyasha and Company, no matter how happy it would make me. Rumiko Takahashi does.

This was written for Inuyasha Quotes (http://community. Week Two prompt:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. -Helen Keller

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She sometimes thought of her life if none of it had ever happened. What if she'd never gone into the well house to find Bouyo? What if Mistress Centipede hadn't dragged her into the past? What if she hadn't released Inuyasha from Kikyo's imprisonment? What is she hadn't broken the jewel? What is she and Inuyasha hadn't joined forces to fix the Shikon? What if they hadn't found Shippo, or rather what if he hadn't found them? What if they hadn't met Miroku? What if Sango hadn't tried to steal the Tetsusaiga and end up their friend and companion? What if she hadn't been born with the jewel in her body to begin with? Each question only bred more questions and Kagome didn't have the answer to any of them.

What if she hadn't been in the well house and if Mistress Centipede had never pulled her in and to the feudal era? Would Kaede's village have been safer without the troublesome girl who often seemed to do more harm than good?

What if she hadn't found the dog-earred boy pinned to the God Tree? Would he still be hanging there in her time, proof of the existence of demons for all to see? Would she have been able to release him then or would he have withered away into nothing but dust over the years, leaving nothing but the scar on the tree as a testament to his very existence?

What if she hadn't broken the jewel? Would Naraku have gained so much power? Would he have hurt so many if he hadn't had the jewel shards to lust after? Would she and Inuyasha have fought against him anyway? Would Kikyo have been returned in a body of nothing but clay and graveyard soil, filled only with hate and the need for vengeance? Would Inuyasha have had to suffer so greatly at the hand of his first love? Would he have ever learned the truth of Kikyo's death and his sealing? Would he ever have learned that he was more than just a filthy half-breed?

What is they hadn't happened upon Shippo? Would he have still fought against the Thunder Brothers out of the need for revenge for his father's death? Would he have survived if he did, or would he have been just another pelt for Manten to wear?

What if they hadn't met Miroku? Would he have still sought to kill Naraku and end his curse? Would he have survived the fight or would his wind tunnel have sucked him in long ago?

What if Sango hadn't been tricked into stealing the Tetsusaiga in hopes of her brother's freedom? Would her village have been killed at all? Would Naraku have had the power to take out all the slayers but two and gain control of one? Would Sango have had to suffer, watching as her brother killed innocents and lived as nothing but a shell, a puppet for an evil creature? Would she have had the strength to fight, not only for revenge but for Kohaku's sake, in hopes of freeing him from him prison?

There were more too. What if she'd never met Kouga? Would he and his pack have continued to kill humans? Would his pack have attacked that last village if Kouga didn't have the shards in his legs? Would Rin have been killed by his wolves only to be revived by Sesshoumaru and the Tenseiga?

If she'd never come to the past and released Inuyasha then the Tetsusaiga would still rest in his father's grave in the black pearl in his eye. Sesshoumaru would never have been injured by the Windscar, so would he have never met the little girl who tried to help him, who taught him so much about the world, about life, that he'd never even imagined possible?

Sure, if she'd never been pulled into the past she wouldn't have missed so much school. She would have been able to live a normal life like a normal girl. She would have gotten good grades and hung out with her friends. She would have spent time with her family. She would probably have dated Hojo. She would have gotten into a good college, got married, and had children and a career. She would still feel at home in her own time, as she would never have experienced life in another.

She could have been a normal girl with a normal life, if only she'd been born without the jewel in her body. Without the jewel she would have never been dragged through the well and thrown into a dangerous life of battle and death and demons, but she would also never have released Inuyasha, and he deserved to be free, to learn to accept himself as he is. Kikyo would never have been returned to this world, but then they would never have learned the truth about the supposed betrayal of one another. Inuyasha needed the chance for closure, and yes, it was painful and confusing, but it taught him so much about himself and life in general. No, the pain was worth it for the lessons learned through it.

If they hadn't met Shippo and helped him defeat the Thunder Brothers, the determined little kit would have fought against them alone and he would have lost. He would have died so long ago instead of becoming like her own son, growing and learning while they traveled and fought. For that reason alone, for Shippo's life, she would do it all again.

Miroku and Sango, on their own, would never have survived their personal fights with Naraku… and they never would have found each other. Both would have been killed without ever knowing true love, without ever having the new family that their group had become. Sango would have flown into battle without a second thought to save the last of her family and village from evil, but she would only have fallen, leaving no one to fight for Kohaku at all. Miroku would have fought long and hard, but in the end the wind tunnel would have overtaken him. They both deserved to live, even if it was a life of battle and bloodshed for a time.

It was possible that Rin would have still been killed by Kouga's wolves, but without Kagome's influence on the past, Sesshoumaru would have never been there to bring her back from death and give her a new, better chance at life. The little girl she loved like a daughter, her life was worth every moment of pain Kagome ever suffered in the feudal era.

The change such a small child caused in the all powerful, vicious, ruthless, deadly taiyoukai… it was amazing how being loved by someone so innocent can change a being. He dropped his shield, little by little letting her into his heart and allowing her presence to enrich his life, to show him a whole other side of the world he had never noticed and never would have without her influence.

She could have been a normal girl with a normal life, if only she'd been born without the jewel in her body. She could have gone until her dying day never shooting an arrow or being attacked by hoards of demons, or riding on the back of a speeding hanyou, but she rather enjoyed it. Yes, it was hard. Yes, sometimes all she wanted to do was go home and take a long, hot bath and sleep in her soft warm bed. Sometimes she even wished that none of it had ever happened, that it had all been a bad dream, but then she would think about it, think about all the things she helped cause.

She would think about all the things that would never have happened, and she discovered that she didn't want to be a normal girl with good grades who hung out with her friends at the mall. She didn't want to go to a good college, get married, and juggled kids and a career. She didn't want to change a thing because every single drop of sweat or blood or tears meant something, not only to her, but to those she met, to the lives she touched, to her new family that she couldn't live without. All the pain and sorrow, all the fighting and death, all the times she just wanted to go home and pretend it never happened, they not only formed who she was but helped to mold the world she lived in, not in the time in which she'd been born, but in the time she was meant to be in. The feudal era was her home, the jewel was hers to protect, and her life was perfect just the way it was.


End file.
